| Quicklinks to Sections Listed Below | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assassination Spec | Combat Spec | Subtlety Spec | Ideal Weapons | Heirloom Gear |
| Leveling Poisons | Ideal Races | Ideal Professions | AoE Options | Leveling Gear |
LEVELING SPECS
Rogues can level effectively with pretty much any talent spec these days, so the key is knowing which spec will best fit your particular playstyle. Assassination, which relies solely on daggers, provides you with a nice mix of burst and consistency, so it's good for both PVP and PVE. Generally, Assassination excels in 1-on-1 encounters, however with the impressive leveling talent of Deadly Momentum, you'll often find yourself plowing through multiple enemies at a rapid pace.
Combat is best known for its nice, consistent damage, handling multiple enemies with ease thanks to Blade Flurry. Combat doesn't rely on stealth or positional attacks and is as good at solo PVE farming/grinding as it is at running 5-man dungeons. The only situation where Combat tends to be lackluster is PVP because it lacks the burst damage and control offered by the other two specs. Also, if you're using daggers, then you'll want to avoid Combat since Sinister Strike with a dagger main hand weapon deals significantly less damage than it does with a non-dagger main hand weapon.
Subtlety is almost the exact opposite of Combat, using stealth and positional attacks to deal a lot of frontloaded burst damage at the expense of being vulnerable when caught out of stealth. This spec can be very effective in PVP and even solo leveling, as long as you stick to 1-on-1 encounters out in the open battlefield. Subtlety is lackluster when it comes to sustained damage and isn't very effective for dungeon leveling. You can use daggers or non-daggers with Subtlety, but daggers will give you a bit more damage and flexibility.
ASSASSINATION LEVELING TALENT SPECS
Here are sample Assassination talent specs optimized for leveling:
COMBAT LEVELING TALENT SPECS
Here are sample Combat talent specs optimized for leveling:
SUBTLETY LEVELING TALENT SPECS
Here are sample Subtlety talent specs optimized for leveling:
WEAPONS
Regardless of your weapons or talent spec, you should get a slow, high DPS, hard hitting main hand weapon with high average damage for increased special attack damage. For your offhand weapon, look for a fast weapon with good stats and high DPS.
BIND ON ACCOUNT HEIRLOOM LEVELING GEAR
As more and more players get access to Bind on Account (BoA) Heirloom items, they often ask which items are the best choices for leveling as a Rogue. This can be a tricky question, since your choice of spec could change as you get to higher levels. Your best options for non-dagger main hand weapons include Venerable Dal'Rend's Sacred Charge and Venerable Mass of McGowan. Balanced Heartseeker is the best choice for a main hand dagger.
As far as an offhand weapon is concerned, Sharpened Scarlet Kris is a good, all-around fast offhand weapon. You could wield a slower BoA offhand weapon like Battleworn Thrash Blade, but then you wouldn't get the maximum benefit from Combat Potency, Crippling Poison or Deadly Poison at higher levels, all of which benefit from a faster offhand weapon.
As far as enchantments are concerned, the only real disadvantage to heirloom weapons is that you can't upgrade their enchants as you're leveling, although the weapons themselves increase in power with each level. For heirloom weapon enchantments, your best choices are usually going to be Crusader or Agility. Crusader can provide more burst damage (and healing), but then again, you can also waste a lot of that burst damage potential in between enemies. Agility, on the other hand, is always on and always useful.
After selecting your heirloom weapons, the next most important BoA items you'll want to get are the armor items that provide an experience bonus. After that, go pick up a pair of heirloom trinkets to put that finishing touch on your heirloom leveling set. As a Rogue, you won't want an heirloom ranged weapon as you'll be better off with thrown weapons while leveling. As of patch 4.0.1, Rogues can now put poisons on their thrown weapons, which can help in a variety of ways.
POISONS
Wound Poison is the most effective poison for leveling unless you're an Assassination Rogue. Wound Poison does more average damage than Instant Poison and also stays on your enemy, giving you the full benefit of Savage Combat if you're leveling Combat. So, after you reach level 32, you should switch from dual Instant Poisons to dual Wound Poisons (unless you're Assassination) to maximize your damage. If you start to have trouble with mobs running off and bringing back friends, you might also want to consider Crippling Poison.
RACES
Each race has its own distinct advantages and disadvantages for PVP/PVE. You can find comparisons of each here:
| Rogue Races Chart |
PROFESSIONS
When it comes to leveling professions, I recommend Skinning/Mining. Send all of the mats to an alt, then you'll have just about everything you need for many of the crafting professions. Once you reach 85, drop one or both gathering professions to pick up your crafting professions. You can find PVP and PVE comparisons of each profession here:
| Rogue Professions Chart |
If you choose Blacksmithing, Engineering or Leatherworking, then these powerleveling guides should help you out:
| Profession Powerleveling Guides | ||
|---|---|---|
| Blacksmithing | Engineering | Leatherworking |
AREA OF AFFECT (AOE) DAMAGE
Players who are used to playing classes where AoE damage is plentiful often find it difficult to transition to a Rogue, a class that doesn't offer much in the way of AoE-style damage other than Blade Flurry and eventually Fan of Knives at level 80. Here are some AoE options available to non-Engineer Rogues as you're leveling:
| AoE Options for Non-Engineers | ||
|---|---|---|
| Levels 10-29 | Levels 30-46 | Levels 47-85 |
| Ez-Thro Dynamite | Ez-Thro Dynamite II | Crystal Charge |
GEAR
When picking up gear, you'll want to use "of the Monkey" or equivalent items that contain both Agility and Stamina. Other stats like AP, Crit Rating & Hit Rating are also good to have. Strength, on the other hand, is a fairly mediocre stat for Rogues, because it only gives 1 AP, whereas Agility provides 2 AP in addition to Crit Rating and Dodge. After reaching level 57, look for "of the Bandit" items which have three useful stats, and then after level 77 keep an eye out for "of the Stormblast/Galeburst/Windflurry" gear with four useful stats.
Whether you're twinking or leveling, you can find the best gear listed in my Rogue Powerleveling Chart and Rogue Twink charts:
| Twink Armor Charts | Twink Weapons Charts | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10-49 | 50-59 | 60-69 | 70-79 | 80-84 | 10-49 | 50-59 | 60-69 | 70-79 | 80-84 |
WHERE TO LEVEL
For a list of optimized quest circuits, I highly recommend Jame's Leveling Guides. They're free and well-designed.
